What i find shocking is the lack of exposure this has.I mean,in my country the big news is the lack of proper housing,poverty and the
homeless(Population 27 million). Yet there are ghost cities that have been around for YEARS and nobody talks about this, what do the chinese
population have to say about this? What about the poor,the homeless and the unemployed say about this? Do they matter?

Great discussion and brainstorming, everyone! A pleasure, and quite thrilling to read!
It's got just the right mixture of anticlimactic, economic analyses and "out there" conspiracy theories to keep it interesting.

One of the most likely scenarios is probably the attempt to maintain the illusion of a productive economy. Personally, the fact that these ghost
cities are in Angola of all places makes me a bit skeptical, but if you've got to build them somewhere, you might as well do it where it's cheap.
Another thing I find strange is the attention to detail. We've got street lights, traffic signals painted on the asphalt, and what looks like shutters
in the windows. If someone wanted to spend money for the sake of spending money, why not build a giant palace or monument within China instead of
these "ghost cities" on another continent?

***UPDATE***One article from the BBC says they were built as part of a post-war construction project to house African citizens. Apparently these
residences are FOR SALE right now yet very few people have purchased one. I guess they should have done a little better researching the area’s
demographics before beginning construction!

The jewel in Angola's post-war reconstruction crown, Kilamba is the star of glossy government promotional videos which show smiling families
enjoying a new style of living away from the dust and confusion of central Luanda where millions live in sprawling slums.

But the people in these films are only actors, and despite all the hype, nearly a year since the first batch of 2,800 apartments went on sale, only
220 have been sold.

When the standard of living, and therefore the cost of living go up in China... Having a ready-made city with most of the needed infrastructure for
the working population in a dirt-cheap location for all your factories to relocate to isn't a bad idea. Notice that the areas they're picking are
mostly along the coastline in areas suitable for building ports.

I don't think it's anything more nefarious than those calling the shots in China planning ahead for the next phase in outsourcing. They're just
planning ahead earlier than the last wave of outsourcing to minimize the downtime that will happen once they make the move.

Good call. We all know Africa has mass amounts of untapped oil and resources, and China needs them. Makes me wonder if this is part of some trade deal
with Africa. China needs resources and Africa needs money and infrastructure.
Or maybe just maybe, when China and Russia take on the world these will support there efforts.

*30,000 candidates have entered the first phase of this three phase project, but that just means they are registered and still need the bank loans.
*$135 to $200 thou per unit
*24 nurseries/daycare centers, 9 primary schools and commercial spaces, public transport, and telecommunications.

I'm sorry, I'm stopping because I just thought of the mortgage crisis and got to ask the following:

Independent of whether the average Angolan can afford these homes or not, will the banks be (or at this point, have they been) giving out loans to the
general public, en masse?

Is this an example of a new housing bubble/home loan securities scam being perpetrated on Angolans?

The Chinese have +1.3 billion people in a place slightly smaller than the US.

They're having ecological disasters, and the environmental pollution is at insane levels in some places.

They've been out-competing the west in contracting excavations of the natural resources from Africa to the east to build products which are then
traded globally.

These contracts are often riddled with sadistic small print.

Essentially, the Chinese are pwning Africa, and looking to start colonizing that continent if/when things start to get too out of control in the
mainland.

I recall hearing of this insane dam in China that was dangerously close to being breached, and causing the dislocation of roughly 200 million people.
Yea, I think it's best for them to prep for the worst.

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